15. time keeps on slipping into the future

Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.

If there's one thing this training exercise has made abundantly clear to me, it's that change is the name of the game for online librarians. Popular tools are always evolving, and new ones sometimes emerge before you have fully grasped how to use the old ones!

One big aspect of 2.0 librarianship is redefining the library as a "place." Before the Web, one had to physically enter the building to use library resources. Today, customers can check out, download and return e-books, listen to an author talk via podcast, sign their children up for summer reading, and look up items and place them on hold—all without ever setting foot in a library building. On the other hand, many customers now visit the library solely to use computers or the Internet—to apply for jobs, communicate with family overseas, or even just to play games. While some of our patrons have the technical tools to use the library remotely, others need us more than ever, to teach them computer basics, like how to set up an e-mail address.

In most cases, we are carrying out these efforts on the fly, without a clear template for how to teach technology skills to newcomers. It is an ongoing undertaking to keep abreast of new developments, and perhaps one reason it has taken me almost five years to make my way through 23 Web "things."